1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to the field of streaming multimedia components over a network. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for enabling interactivity with multiplexed multiple live, stored, or dynamic multimedia content.
2. Background and Description of the Related Art
Several of the techniques in this domain to enable interaction are based on the ability to browse and select still images, or Video on Demand Solutions based on a single video source. There are also several applications where locally, in predefined grid areas the multimedia is rendered. There are implementations of interactive flow responsive units such as IVR, which is purely based on voice solutions.
The problem with these solutions is that it is challenging to integrate multiple video streams with different codecs and frame rates, to present this at the user device as if it were from a single source, and to allow interaction with multiple multimedia components from a single source. None of the interactive solutions currently available have video with programmable hot spots that are user selectable through mouse, keyboard, DTMF, voice recognition, or other interactive devices.
There is also an issue with multimedia and flexible state machines. Because of the need to store all of the information associated with each state at the server in the prior art, the state machine associated with a process driven by multimedia displays cannot be very complex or the number of users will quickly overwhelm the system.
What is desired is an apparatus to enable interaction between a client device and content created by multiplexing and incorporating the content from multiple live or stored multimedia streams into a single multimedia stream. Also, to be able to create complex state machines driven by these multimedia streams using interaction with a variety of client devices to move the state machine from one state to the next.